Yesterday we went to Repticon here in Atlanta. Our six year old wasn't having a great day so I didn't get to browse nearly as much as I would have liked but I tried to make the most out of the short time I had. It wasn't a total loss with Isaac though, he was willing to touch about four different snakes from little Balls up to a pretty big Boa someone had out as well as a Bearded Dragon.

But, not a lot of Carpets in attendance. There were truckloads of Ball Pythons, a goodly amount of boas, Leopard & Crested Geckos, and smaller amounts of various other species scattered around the hall but very few carpets.

Just two booths had Carpet babies. One had a single adult Carpet but they didn't know anything about it and I was told they bought it from a pet store recently.

Of the two booths, one was Bryan Hummel's. He had a nice deal going on giving away a free temp gun with his snakes too. I think about 6 Carpets total. There was a very yellow jungle jag (22% diamond) that was very attractive with targets on her side and nice to handle too but I think I just want to avoid the whole jag neurological thing - it would break my heart for that to happen to my baby. He was a great guy and very helpful answering questions or me.

The other booth had a similar number, didn't get their name, but it was a variety of types - Coastal, Darwin, Jungle with some mixed het traits here and there. The guy running the booth didn't know a ton about them, I believe he said they belonged to a guy "running the show" and hence busy elsewhere but he was happy to let me take them out and look. The Darwin (het albino) was a friendly little guy and must have been older than the others as he was bigger, but kind of plain looking. A feisty little Coastal tagged me but she was so small it was just cute and I could hardly feel it happen.


Frankly, I ran out of time due to kid issues and didn't get to interact with any Bloods as I had planned. There were some at the show, but none of the booths seemed to know much about them and told me they might be aggressive. One of these was the same booth that had the adult Carpet from a pet store, apparently they bought their Bloods off "some guy" recently too. Sorry guys. I only want a quality breeder that knows their animals and their heredity.


So that brings me to The Plan. I'm going to get a Carpet. I found the Breeder Direct Morelia group on Facebook which seems to be where a lot of the quality breeders hang out, so I'm watching the ads on there looking for the one I want.

Still uncertain about the exact type but I think A Jungle (non-jag) is most likely. I've seen a few Coastals I liked too and the Bredli's are also nice but there doesn't seem to be as much variation in them. If I go Coastal I'll probably get a male (slightly smaller).

Question about the Coastals (Caramel or normal)... Do they typically keep their baby colors in adulthood? I've seen some pics of young with a nice bone-whitish background but not as many adults like that and when I view family tree pics the parents are usually more yellowish in their background so I wonder if they just change as they age. For example:

https://www.facebook.com/MidAtlantic...type=3&theater

Yeah, that one also happens to be a Jag but it was a good example of the bone color.

And finally, I realized I have an 18" display cube cage with undertank heat tape that should be well suited for a young Carpet so I'm working on getting that cleaned up and once I'm done I'll plug it into my thermostat to test out the heating. It's this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Exo-Terra-Gla.../dp/B000OQYGQ4

So do you guys think that should do well for a 2016 (or 2015) youngster as long as there are sufficient hides, or would I be better off with a tub for a more secure feeling? I get the impression that Carpets aren't as shy as some species so maybe the tub isn't necessary. I would probably partially cover it for the first few days until he settles in.

I had also hoped to find a copy of the Complete Carpet Python for sale at the show but there were very few books in general so I guess I need to order that and wait for it to come in.